8 November 2016 Sid Meier's Civilization VI

HEXIt's been 6 years since the last main game in the Civilization franchise, which is a very long time in between conquering.

BAJOPart of the reason for that, might just be that Civ V is still SUCH a good game, and only got better with each update. Fans of Civilization are BIG fans. Kind of like how fans of JRPGs are really into JRPGs.

HEXYou can't really dip your toes into this. Civ VI is a big deal - It brings some of the biggest changes to the series yet. We've waded in about waist deep.

BAJOJust up to here where it starts to get serious.

HEXIt takes dozens of hours and game after game until you really really come to grips with this.

BAJOAbsolutely, the first PC game I ever played was Civilization so it has a lot of nostalgia for me. But this particular Civ, I feel like I'm relearning the entire game again! Which is stressful and also really great! The newest and most complicated mechanic, is districts. Developer Firaxis have made the bold decision to pull out a lot of the structures that would just build within your city centre, and force you to physically place them on the map. This is actually a really big deal. You can only have one of each kind of district in a city.

HEXYeah, if you just plonk down every district you can, you forfeit land, and thus resources. And this could potentially make your city less productive in the long term, and limit some options, while opening up new ones. There's a lot to consider, isn't there!

BAJO. I think that the intention with these districts is to force you to specialize each city rather than having a whole bunch of clones. I think what they're trying to do is get rid of ICS - infinite city spread - which was a valid way to win in previous games, but not this is far more interesting.

HEXYeah, I think districts are a natural evolution to the game. And where you put them within your city matters a lot as well. You'll want to put commercial districts near rivers for example, for bonuses. Districts are permanent though, so you have to live with your decisions

BAJOIt's really nice seeing your city spread out visually this way too. And the whole game has a lovely LEGO-like, delightful like pop to it, as you place things down and units move about. I read an article that compared this art style to a board game and that's SO accurate. I totally agree with that! It's just a delightful game! It's a delight to look at and a delight to play.

HEXYeah, this one really appeals to me visually and just the way it all feels: That tactile bitsy-ness of it.

BAJOOther major changes is that you don't have to worry about happiness so much. The 'happiness' mechanic of the last game has kind of been turned into amenities, where you just need to have enough housing and certain structures to keep your city growing. It's a great change, because I felt like in Civ V, I was always struggling to keep my civilians happy and that distracted me from the fun stuff.

HEXKeeping the leaders happy is another thing entirely. Now, each leader has their own agendas. They have their own goals, as opposed to the AI in previous games where they all kind of played the same.

BAJOYeah it never felt right seeing Gandhi letting off a nuke.

HEXThe AI isn't necessarily any better or worse- they still seem to behave strangely at times - loving you one minute, then declaring war the next. But they're definitely more interesting to play against.

BAJOYeah another thing that I really liked was the new war system. So in my first play through, England were so upset that I kept settled near them. They just kept going to war with me. Constant. We can never be friends. And it upset the other leaders so much that it really set back my civilizations progress.

HEXYes, it can very tempting to just wipe out little cities nearby, but there are diplomatic consequences if you get labelled a warmonger!

BAJOWell, now with the new war system, you can actually argue your reasons to go to war so you don't get such a penalty. This casus belli system basically means you can justify war to the other leaders, and have little or I think in some cases, no penalty to declaring war on another leader. If you have a valid reason.

HEXAnother change is that you don't have to build roads, which is fantastic. When you open up a trade routes, it automatically builds a road. You can upgrade your land with builder units, but they'll also disappear after a while, so you have to make good use of them.

BAJOI might be imagining this but I felt like moving units around the map was a little bit slower, but I didn't really mind much. The combat is still strategic and the fighting is rich and beautiful to watch. Plus there are ways to speed up animations . However, I turned those animations off pretty quick because barbarians are total bastards now!

HEXYeah - they're much more aggressive, and are always building little camps. And if you leave them be and don't take care of the problem, they start sending out some pretty advanced units to mess you up.

BAJOThe number of times I'd be building an undefended city and a whole army of barbarians have just rock up! City states also feel more involved in the strategy of the game now. You don't just throw money at them to win them over, you have to use an envoy system and to be honest, I haven't got my head around that yet because I've spent most of my time fighting the queen of England and barbarians with cannons- cannons Hex!!

HEXOverall, this is a more refined, and specialized Civ game. It makes really you stop and think hard about what you want each city's purpose to be. But, I also think it's also a bit more impenetrable because of that, and the tutorial is unusually basic.

BAJOSo surprising. I think newcomers (and maybe even oldcomers) may find it difficult getting to grips with the finer points of this game. But that's also half the fun. This is kind of like a big puzzle with so much to put together and it's a mess and you need to find the most logical way to put it together. And it's definitely worth seeking out some strategy guides to get a leg up. That really helped me.

HEXThere's so much more to this game that we haven't covered yet, like the religion and political systems. And how civics has its own tech tree, and there's all these wonderful bonus cards to place down depending on what kind of government you have. Once again, putting down those cards makes it feel more like a board game. We should wrap this up, what are you going to give it Bajo?

BAJOI think time will tell as to whether all of these changes play out as intended. Just a note, we couldn't check out the multiplayer because there were no matches! I think everyone was still getting to grips with the single player. I'm going to give it 4/5; I think it's great and I'm having a good time so far.

HEXThis game feels exceptionally well thought out game, and I think it's going to be around for a long time. I'm going to give it 4/5 as well.